§ Mr. Gary WallerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what monitoring of radioactivity levels was carried out in the Craven and Ilkley area of north and west Yorkshire in the period following the Chernobyl disaster; whether any precautionary action was taken; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonIn the period following the Chernobyl accident, the Ministry sampled widely in England; in north and west Yorkshire, 181 and 36 samples respectively were taken in 1986. Of these, the samples listed in the table were taken from the Craven and Bradford districts (the latter includes Ilkley). None of these results gave cause for concern so precautionary action was limited to continuing low-level monitoring in these counties.
However, I have been aware of recent press comments focusing on a small area around Skipton and Ilkley, and have as a precaution caused further sampling to be carried out in these localities. I reported the initial results of this exercise to my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry) on 9 November, at column 63, and I undertook in that reply to publish all results in detail when complete and deposit them in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonInformation is not readily available in the form requested. Expenditure by my Department, including information division, on press liaison, information policy, technical visual aids and publications, as shown in the Ministry's top management information system (MINIM), is as follows:
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£ million 1987–88 2.7 1986–87 3.0 1985–86 3.5 1984–85 3.2 Expenditure for previous years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. HayesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list by grade the personnel currently employed in the information division of his Department.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonThe complement for information division for(a) press liaison, information policy, technical visual aids and publication duties; and (b) library services, is as follows:
Grade (a) (b) 5 1 — PIO — Chief librarian (Grade 7) — 1 SIO 8 — Deputy Chief librarian — 1 IO 6 — IO/HEO 4 — HEO 2 —
United Kingdom imports of live poultry from the European Community Number of birds Year France Netherlands Irish Republic Denmark 1981 — — 374,003 — 1982 — 48,626 1,297,112 283,200 1983 — 20,785 1,376,968 500 1984 41,517 19,810 1,933,022 773,526 1985 1st quarter 10,275 — 717,548 177,797 2nd quarter 1,400 13,500 775,952 166,000 3rd quarter 6,700 — 741,263 188,550 4th quarter 1,800 8,490 651,907 221,500 1986 1st quarter — — 565,964 208,068 2nd quarter 7,950 3,320 1,071,360 242,306 3rd quarter 2,450 1,560 873,274 233,284 4th quarter 8,050 — 931,897 153,450 Source: Her Majesty's Customs and Excise Trade Statistics.
§ Mr. StrangTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish a table showing the quarterly figures for the last two years and annual figures for the preceding five years for the number of imports of poultry into the United Kingdom from each non-EEC country.
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United Kingdom imports of live poultry from third countries Number of Birds United States of America Canada Tanzania 1981 20,574 — — 1982 112 38,900 24 1983 — 14,600 — 1984 53,833 44,466 — 1985 1st quarter 31,200 — — 2nd quarter 12,980 17,609 —
Grade (a) (b) Librarian — 2 Assistant librarian — 6 AIO 9 — AIO/EO 2 — EO 6 — Higher Graphics Officer 1 — Graphics Officer 7 — Translators (Grade II and III) — 5 AO/AA 26 15 Senior Paper Keeper and Paper Keepers 11 2 Senior Photographer 1 — Personal Secretary 2 — Typist 1 — Total 89 32